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8th February 2013 Archive

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  • Teradata rides big data wave in Q4, does better than expected

    Which, if big data is all it is cracked up to be, shouldn't be possible

    Systems vendor Teradata is riding the twin waves of traditional data warehousing and new-fangled big data munching, and is doing a pretty good job positioning itself to stay relevant in an increasingly Hadoopy world.  The company just turned in better numbers for the fourth quarter than Wall Street expected, but then Wall …

    Servers 8 Feb 00:32

  • LibreOffice 4.0 ships with new features, better looks

    Slowly closing the gap with Microsoft Office

    The Document Foundation has announced LibreOffice 4.0, the latest version of the free software competitor to Microsoft Office that spun off from the OpenOffice.org effort in 2010, describing it as nothing less than "the free office suite the community has been dreaming of since 2001." "LibreOffice 4.0 is the first release that …

    Applications 8 Feb 00:58

  • Google Drives into web hosting

    Simple service from the cloud

    Google Drive has turned on a feature that lets the cloud storage service become a limited web host. It's long been possible to allow others to access data stored in the service, which can produce a URL for files. The new tweak means it's possible to ask for a “Preview” of an HTML file stored in Google Drive. Doing so renders …

    Cloud 8 Feb 01:32

  • Ubuntu for Galaxy Nexus phones to arrive in February

    Dev version for now, but first phones will ship in October

    Ubuntu main man Mark Shuttleworth says plans are on track to produce smartphones running a mobile variant of the Ubuntu Linux OS by October 2013, but developers should be able to start working with the platform even sooner. A version of Ubuntu for smartphones that runs on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus handset is expected to be …

    Operating Systems 8 Feb 02:08

  • Motorola complaint against Microsoft narrowed

    Judge invalidates chunks of patents

    Google-owned Motorola has had its patent portfolio trimmed by a US judge in its ongoing battle with Microsoft. Reuters is reporting that judge James Robart of the US District Court has ruled thirteen claims in three patents (US 7,310,374, 7,310,375 and 7,310,376) invalid. The order is at Scribd, here. At issue are two claims …

    Law 8 Feb 02:29

  • Facebook glitch briefly crashes several sites

    No, you can't log on with Facebook Connect … bitch

    Facebook Connect, the single sign-on tool Facebook uses to allow its accounts to serve as logins to other online services, has experienced a glitch that froze users out of many popular websites and sent them to an error message. The incident took place in the very early hours of 8 February, GMT, and saw Facebook Connect users …

    Cloud 8 Feb 02:39

  • Shatners talks space, acting with fellow Canuck on ISS

    Science fiction meets science reality

    William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk of the USS Enterprise, has been chatting with fellow Canadian Chris Hadfield, who is about to take over as the commander of the International Space Station. Hadfield, wearing a red shirt, opened the chat with a blast of the Star Trek boatswain's whistle, used in the series to signify that the …

    Science 8 Feb 02:43

  • TDD LTE gaining momentum in 4G push, says ZTE

    Some carriers could move from FDD

    The Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) flavour of LTE will face increasing competition in favour of Time Division Duplexing (TDD), according to Chinese telecoms infrastructure giant ZTE. Far more operators currently have FDD networks either in operation or trialing than TDD, as can be seen on this handy interactive map. FDD's …

    Networks 8 Feb 03:48

  • Electric cars stall in USA, Australia

    Better Place between a rock and a hard place

    Better Place, the electric car outfit founded by spurned SAP CEO aspirant Shai Agassi, has walked away from projects in the USA and Australia, to “focus on delivering on its strategy in Denmark and Israel, where the complete infrastructure is in place and commercial operations are fully underway,” Better Place's electric car …

    Financial News 8 Feb 04:38

  • Taiwan's Polytron promises see-through phones

    Has anyone seen my mobile? I can't find it anywhere!

    Taiwanese manufacturer Polytron has showed a prototype of a transparent smartphone and thinks they could reach the market by year's end. The Taoyuan-based firm, which describes itself as a leading manufacturer of “electronic and optical vision glass”, demoed an almost completely transparent touchscreen device to Mobile Geeks …

    Hardware 8 Feb 05:42

  • Good news! UK IT jobs up. Bad news? They're with a bunch of bankers

    Contractors doing best of all

    Cockle-warming stats from the UK jobs market show that job openings for techies went up at the end of 2012 and that opportunities in the well-paying financial IT sector rose for the first time in six months. Permanent IT jobs advertised in the UK went up 6 per cent in the last three months of 2012 compared to the year before, …

    Jobs 8 Feb 07:02

  • EU: We'll force power plants, Apple and pals to admit hack attacks

    New rules on reporting breaches proposed in cyber-strategy

    Power stations, banks, online shops, cloud providers, search engines, app stores, social networks and governments may soon be required by law to disclose ALL major security breaches. In a strategy titled An Open, Safe and Secure Cyberspace, the European Commission proposed this new directive for the continent: Operators of …

    Security 8 Feb 08:03

  • Quantum backs up 156TB backup box over EMC's back lawn

    Squeezes out second-largest array plus new top-end tape library

    Quantum has introduced its second-largest deduplicating hard-drive array the DXi6800, and refreshed its top-end tape library. First, disks: the firm's dedupe gear runs from the low-end DXi V1000 through the 4000 and 6700 and up to the high-end 8500. The 6800 fits between the 6700 and 8500 models. Its capacity ranges from 13TB …

    Storage 8 Feb 08:34

  • Psst, wanna block nuisance calls? BT'll do it... for a price

    The phone that's not at home to spammers

    BT's latest phone, the BT6500, can prevent spammers from getting through to the harassed householder, forwarding them to an integrated answerphone - so BT still gets paid, of course. The householder will have to check those messages regularly though, as any caller withholding their Caller ID could end up there too, along with …

    Networks 8 Feb 09:03

  • NetApp fattens up FAS array beasts to flog to data ranchers

    Embiggens high-end range for biz-critical apps

    The storage desk at El Reg has learnt NetApp has a high-end FAS6200/V6200 array refresh coming. The V-Series are FAS array controllers front-ending third-party arrays and enabling them to function in a FAS data centre. NetApp has gone through a refresh cycle with its entry-level FAS2000 --> FAS2200s, its mid-range FAS3000 …

    Storage 8 Feb 09:32

  • 'You get burned out on Facebook after a while'

    Quotw Plus: 'The only risk is the power of the Force'

    This was the week when Americans came right out and told Pew Research Center what we've all been thinking about Facebook: that sh*t gets old. Pew found that 61 per cent of current US users felt they needed a break from the social network, voluntarily abstaining from baby milestone status updates, pictures of breakfast and …

    Bootnotes 8 Feb 10:04

  • Tennessee bloke quits job over satanic wage slip

    '666' ID code will 'sell his soul to the devil'

    A Tennessee born-again Christian has quit his job after receiving a wage slip marked "666" despite previously warning his employers of a serious aversion to the Number of the Beast. Walter Slonopas, 52, toiled as a maintenance worker at Contech Casting in Clarksville until bosses issued him a Form W-2 bearing the satanic …

    Bootnotes 8 Feb 10:24

  • Every single Internet Explorer at risk of drive-by hacks until Patch Tuesday

    FIFTY-SEVEN gaping holes closed this month

    Microsoft has lined up a bumper Patch Tuesday this month to snap shut a backbreaking 57 security vulnerabilities in its products. Five of the 12 software updates addressing the gaping holes will tackle critical flaws that allow miscreants to execute code remotely on vulnerable systems. In all, the soon-to-be-patched …

    Security 8 Feb 10:44

  • JBoss is juicy, but Vert.x could bring sexy back to Red Hat

    Linux shop man on app servers, business and keeping devs interested

    Seven years after Red Hat snatched JBoss out from under Larry Ellison’s nose, the enterprise Linux distributor is continuing to squeeze the juice from the open-source application server. Red Hat spent $350m buying JBoss in 2006 and today it forms the technology backbone and the brand-name basis of Red Hat’s enterprise …

    Developer 8 Feb 11:05

  • Paper computers: Not mere pulp fiction

    Something for the Weekend, Sir? That’s torn it

    I love it when I read or hear the phrase “Print is dead”. Idiocy is so enthralling. I am fascinated by people who can shamelessly proclaim their own ignorance in public with such determination. Future tech: Elliot light pen shown on Tomorrow's World in 1967 How many trees could you grow in that time? Since I last commented …

    Vintage 8 Feb 11:10

  • Huge rock-hard marble erection shocks Japanese kiddies

    Parents demand underpants for Michelangelo's David dead ringer

    The good burghers of the Japanese town of Okuizumo have suggested a giant replica of Michelangelo's David might do well to slip on some underpants, lest kiddies are left traumatised by an eyeful of the "big and unexpected" statue. Okuizumo, in Shimane Prefecture, has enjoyed the 5-metre tall nude since last summer. It was …

    Bootnotes 8 Feb 11:28

  • About to outsource your IT? Read this first

    Some of you just might be changing suppliers soon

    Whenever a major service provider runs into financial difficulties it is undoubtedly an extremely unsettling period, not least for the workforce, customers and management. Tough decisions need to be made in very tight timeframes which often don't allow much time for strategic planning. Financial distress is one of the ever- …

    Management 8 Feb 11:48

  • Game Theory: Bioshock Infinite, Devil May Cry, SimCity

    The latest videogame releases reviewed... and more

    The first few months of the year are, as ever, a time for the public and publishers alike to draw breath after the Christmas frenzy. Only a handful of full-price games launch, giving gamers time to catch a breath and ponder what they’ll spend their money on in the year to come. That said, this period is already clocking up …

    Games 8 Feb 12:04

  • Adobe muzzles TWO zero-day wild things with emergency Flash patches

    Updated Critical block for active Win and Mac attacks

    Adobe published a critical Flash Player update on Thursday that fixes not just one but two zero-day flaws, both under active attack by hackers. Both Windows and Mac users are in the firing line. One of the vulnerabilities (CVE-2013-0633) is being harnessed in targeted attacks designed to trick marks into opening a Microsoft …

    Security 8 Feb 12:14

  • Blighty evades Fujitsu's staff-slashing samurai sword

    Continental Europe lacking ninja skills, unfortunately

    Fujitsu's workers in UK and Ireland will be spared the axe after the global tech corp prepared to lay off 5,000 employees. British and Irish staff will avoid the redundancies because they met sales and profits expectations. The Japanese electronics monster is undergoing a substantial shakeup: yesterday it announced it will …

    The Channel 8 Feb 12:34

  • Eyes in the sky: UK.gov's CCTV code to IGNORE MILLIONS of cameras

    'Surveillance by consent' but operators WON'T BE sanctioned for cockups

    The coalition government, keen to avoid being seen in the same light as the database and snooping-obsessed previous Labour administration, has issued a draft code of practice that it claims "introduces a philosophy of surveillance by consent". But the code won't cover the vast majority of cameras* that are operated privately …

    Government 8 Feb 12:44

  • 'Disturbed' Dell investors could tank private buyout

    But Michael and the VCs unlikely to raise offer - report

    According to reports, Dell's largest independent shareholder, Southeastern Asset Management, is not keen on the $24.4bn buyout bid, and it's not the only one. Sources whispered to Reuters that Southeastern and other investors think the deal undervalues their shares at $13.65 each and were hoping for more like $20 a share. …

    Financial News 8 Feb 13:04

  • El Reg contemplates the ultimate cuppa

    Builders' brew with two sugars? You tell us...

    As regular readers know, we at the SPB are tireless in our pursuit of culinary excellence, and many of you share our penchant for gourmet grub, including the pinnacle of pork perfection that is the bacon sarnie. Last year, you responded magnificently to our invitation to submit nominations for the ultimate sliced-pig-in-bread …

    SPB 8 Feb 13:17

  • 11-YEAR-OLD code wizard hacks Greedy RuneScape geeks

    Kid's .NET Trojan offers hard coin but teleports passwords

    A Trojan that promises RuneScape players gold but instead steals their passwords was developed by an 11-year-old, researchers claim. Antivirus biz AVG said it made the discovery after studying a piece of code masquerading as a cheat tool for the wizards'n'warriors online role-playing game. The malware asks victims for their …

    Games 8 Feb 13:44

  • 'Depression-era grandma' Apple responds to bolshy investor

    Board to 'evaluate' the proposal

    Apple has taken the unusual step of publicly responding to a complaint from a shareholder who compared the company to his cash-hoarding grandmother. David Einhorn, president of Greenlight Capital, said that Apple Inc had a "depression era" attitude to cash that reminded him of his grandmother who refused to leave voicemail …

    Financial News 8 Feb 13:59

  • Björk gives up trying to Kickstart Android music app

    Elfin chanteuse's educational album/app mashup stays on iOS

    Elfin Icelandic singer and educator Björk has had to cancel a Kickstarter project to get her music and science app suite Biophilia ported from iOS to Android and Windows 8. The original Manic Pixie Dream Girl was looking for £375,000 to get the multimedia project - which includes an album where each song is a self-contained …

    Applications 8 Feb 14:28

  • 2e2 cloud cash fiasco puts NHS IT and biz 'over a barrel'

    What's that sound? Ah, it's rivals circling overhead

    NHS trusts and other customers of IT giant 2e2 are stuck between a "rock and a hard place" after their worst nightmares of cloud computing came true. Hospital bosses and private businesses relied on the integrator to operate their outsourced cloud systems - but 2e2's administrators demanded extra cash last week to keep those …

    The Channel 8 Feb 14:58

  • Nemo cancels Microsoft's Surface Pro launch

    No launch like a snow launch

    Microsoft’s super-select, invitation-only Surface Pro launch event in New York has been cancelled thanks to a big fish. The general manager of Microsoft’s Surface team Panos Pany tweeted that he wouldn’t be able to attend the event at Best Buy in Times Square because of blizzard warnings hanging over the New York City area. …

    Tablets 8 Feb 15:19

  • Boffins find RAT-SIZED bug-muncher links man to beast

    But don't you see what that means, you dull-witted animal?

    The missing link between man and beast is a ancient rat-like creature that preceded all placental mammals - a group that encompasses both whales and humans. Boffins have figured out that primates and dinosaurs did not co-exist, as the mammal ancestors didn't start diversifying into placental mammals (which includes primates) …

    Science 8 Feb 15:27

  • The business mullet: Cool or tool?

    Open ... and Shut When testosterone dresses itself....

    Silicon Valley is notoriously casual in its dress and business demeanor. In a culture that celebrates every day as Casual Friday, it's hard to get the tech crowd to dress up. Which is why it's so painful when techie types try to dress up. Maybe they need to pitch a VC. Maybe they have an important sales meeting with a …

    Management 8 Feb 16:04

  • BBC blueprint to make EVERY programme on TV a repeat revealed

    Because it'll all be on iPlayer first - trust approves trial run

    The BBC Trust has approved a year-long trial project to show all programmes on iPlayer first. Some 40 hours of content across all genres will be made available online ahead of its TV broadcast, technically making every transmission a repeat. The Beeb has put out online-only content in the past, but this latest green-light …

    Media 8 Feb 16:27

  • George Bush's family emails, pics ransacked - and spewed online

    Read my lips: no new hacks... oh wait

    A hacker put personal photos of George H W Bush online this week after reportedly breaking into the former US president's family email accounts. One of the leaked snaps shows the 88-year-old Republican recovering from a serious illness in a hospital bed in December last year. His relatives' emails and contact details were also …

    Security 8 Feb 17:04

  • Atomic Weapons Establishment ditches 2e2 in funding row

    Not riding this bomb down

    Stricken integrator 2e2's administrator has confirmed in a letter to staff that the Atomic Weapons Establishment, one of its data centre customers, walked after it was asked to pay thousands of pounds to keep the server farm up and running. FTI Consulting, hauled in to take charge of 2e2 late January, told remaining staff at …

    The Channel 8 Feb 17:27

  • Ebook price-fixing: Macmillan settles with DoJ, Apple fights on

    Cheaper electronic reads from today...

    EBooks published by Macmillan will become cheaper as of today, said the US Department of Justice (DOJ), announcing that the publisher has agreed to settle a price-fixing lawsuit. MacMillan and the DOJ came to a settlement today, nine months after the department launched the lawsuit for price-fixing against Macmillan, four …

    Government 8 Feb 17:58

  • LinkedIn proves not all social IPOs were bubbly

    Financial results humiliate Facebook, Groupon, Zynga

    While IPO investors in Facebook, Groupon, and Zynga are still losing money on their investments, shares in LinkedIn rose nearly 20 per cent in trading after the company released good fourth quarter and year-end results. On Thursday, LinkedIn reported that revenues were up 81 per cent to $303.6m for the last quarter, and up 86 …

    Financial News 8 Feb 20:30

  • Google to splurge $82m for exclusive airport exec enclave

    Teams with UK firm to erect a place to park its privates – jets, that is

    A plan by Google and British partner Signature Aviation to build a private airport terminal for the executive jet-set has received strong backing from local officials and looks likely to get approval. The plan calls for an $82m extension to the San José International Airport with hangars, ramp space, and an executive 17,000 …

    Business 8 Feb 22:16

  • Google exec defends search snooping, location tracking

    Apple's Maps app, however, could get you killed

    Google may store your search history and know where you are, but unless you've been searching for tips on how to suffocate someone, your privacy is secure. How do we know? Because according to Google's Chief Technology Advocate Michael Jones, "We're nice people as well as business people." Appearing on the Australian …

    Media 8 Feb 22:17

  • Intel stuffs more dough down Big Switch Network's trousers

    Here's $6.5m more – now that is a respectable SDN wad

    Intel has come in late in the Series B round of funding for SDN upstart Big Switch Networks, and has crammed another $6.5m into its pockets. Why? Simple: Chipzilla's Intel Capital venture arm knows that its parent company is counting on the switching business to help keep its Data Center and Connected Systems Group growing …

    Data Networking 8 Feb 22:28

  • HP clamps down on student labor in Chinese factories

    Workers must be allowed to leave, too

    HP has issued new employment guidelines for its supply chain partners in China, in response to what it describes as "the significant increase in the use of student and dispatch workers" in manufacturing facilities across the country. "We have worked closely with leading Chinese stakeholders to develop our new student and …

    Business 8 Feb 22:29

  • Remember that Xeon E7-Itanium convergence? FUHGEDDABOUDIT

    Intel backtracks on 'Kittson' Itanium plans, including shift to 22 nanometers

    If you are an Itanium shop and you were hoping for a big upgrade in performance with the future "Kittson" Itanium processors around two years from now, it looks like you can forget it. It ain't gonna happen – and you can also delete from your memory the idea of a common socket for Xeons and Itaniums. On January 31, on the …

    Servers 8 Feb 23:53